Netflix For The Arts: New Samsung Gear VR App Aims To Make Virtual Access To Museums Mainstream

Ever heard of a startup with Neil Gaiman as a board member, and with Kevin Spacey as creative advisor? I did. And it will soon hit your favoured virtual reality headset, starting from the Samsung Gear VR.

At the IFA in Berlin, I got the chance to test its first product: an app scheduled to be launched this fall, which wants to re-imagine the way we experience art, eliminating geographic, economic and physical boundaries.

It's called WoofbertVR, and will offer a content-rich environment featuring artworks from the world’s leading museums, exploring works by artists like Manet, Monet, Gauguin, Renoir and many others. It will initially be available for Samsung's headset, through the Galaxy App store, but it aims to be platform agnostic.

"Our goal has always been to create an app that will be able to be played on any device, from Oculus to the desktop. Our goal is to focus on education, and really help museums and galleries extend their reach," WoofbertVR's co-founder Elizabeth L. Reede told me when I met her during the fair.

To achieve this, they'll have to partner with a number of cultural institutions, and that's where Reede's professional background comes into play. Before launching her own consulting firm, she worked as an assistant curator for the MoMA in New York, has a B.A. in Art History, an M.B.A in Finance, and also worked for Sotheby's at some point in her life.

In other words, she's very well connected. This helps explain why she is so confident that a world usually so cautious and wary of strangers, like that of museums, will open the doors for her and her team.

They already signed a partnership with the famous Courtauld Gallery in London, for which they developed the virtual visit that was on show at Samsung's Gear VR booth in Berlin, and have a number of other deals in the works.

Add to this that Reede's partner and co-founder, Rob Hamwee is very well introduced in financial circles, being the CEO of New Mountain Finance, and you'll get the idea that this is not your usual startup built by two teenagers in a dusty garage.

In fact, WoofbertVR did not have any problem raising money: it was initially funded by Hamwee, and later raised another $2.78 million in a funding round in June.

As for the business model, the plan is to create exclusive partnerships with museums. "For instance, we have an exclusive relationship with the Courtauld for these kinds of presentations," Reede says, "When we start to actually charge for it, the goal is to keep the charge very feasible. A number that it comparable to, let's say, a
Netflix subscription. The intent is, much like Netflix, for the user, you pay your monthly fee or your annual fee, and you get anything we have."

Authors, playwrights and actors will add value to the content - like Neil Gaiman did, lending his voice to the Courtauld experience - that will be available theoretically on any platform, from desktop PCs to the Oculus. The company is also working on the idea of 'group visits', where two people or more will be able to admire the same art collection, connecting from different locations but being simultaneously present thanks to their avatars.

This is something that could also appeal to schools; actually, WoofbertVR will propose school districts or single institutions to purchase a subscription to their services, so that children will be able to appreciate work of arts they could never have the chance to see in person in their whole life.

Not that it could really entirely substitute the real thing, or that it hopes to. But it could provide a better, and more immersive alternative than just staring in front of a printed or digital picture.

"I believe, as does everyone in our team, that nothing replaces visiting a museum and seeing the object and being there, and that is in no way what we're trying to imply this. Rather what we want to do, is democratize access to this masterpieces," Reede says.